A ward boy with a Panvel-based hospital was arrested on Sunday for allegedly murdering his girlfriend by injecting five different drugs including an overdose of anaesthesia.
According to the police, Chandrakant Vithal Gaikar (35), a resident of Turmale village in Panvel, planned to kill his 40-year-old girlfriend for pestering him to marry her.
The victim had met the accused for the first time around six months ago after she fractured her leg in an accident. During her follow-up visits to the hospital, she developed a relationship with Mr. Gaikar. The accused was married with two children, which the police suspect, the victim was unaware of.
In the course of treatment, the woman developed an infection and a test revealed that she had a medical condition which was untreatable.
Senior police inspector Ajay Landge from Panvel City police station said, “The accused claimed that the woman had started pestering him for marriage and to get rid of her, he decided to kill her on the pretext of treating her of the ailment.”
Mr. Gaikar took the woman to the proposed site of Navi Mumbai airport in Panvel on Friday and administered her five injections. “The accused was well aware of what medicine could kill her and accordingly planned the murder,” police sub-inspector Sunil Tarmale from Panvel City police station said.
After killing her, he fled with all her belongings which he later dumped on the outskirts of Turmale village. The body was found by locals on Saturday and on the same day, brother of the woman approached the police to register a missing person’s complaint.
The accused was produced before court on Monday, and he has been remanded in police custody till June 6.
